Table of Contents
Religion, Power, and Illusion: A Genealogy of Religious Belief
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Chapter 1 Overview
Religion and Power 1
Sources of Religious Power 4
Illusion 5
Priests 8
Constructs 9
Constructs and Illusion 13
Religion 14
Atheolatrism 14
Historical Roots of Religion 17
Layout of This Study 18
Chapter 2 The Emergence of Religion
Animism 26
The Fetish 28
Priests 30
Belief in the Afterlife 32
The Continuity of Religion 35
Tylor and Frazer 38
Chapter 3 The Egyptians
The Importance of Egypt 41
The Afterlife 42
Book of the Dead 47
Priests and Gods 50
Rituals, Processions, and Festivals 56
The Fictitious Nature of the Gods 57
A Theistic Objection 61
Were the Egyptians Actually Monotheists? 63
Akhenaten 66
Evidence for Genuine Polytheism: A Love for Multiplicity 71
Conclusion and a Final Comment 76
Chapter 4 The Jews
Moses 80
Yahweh and the Aten 82
Consequences of the Yahweh-Aten Hypothesis 85
Difficulties with Moses and Yahweh 86
The Exodus 89
Friedman's Argument 92
An Exodus Reduced in Size and Duration 93
Additional Facts That Bear on an Exodus 95
The Exodus as an Expulsion 98
The Historical Conquest 99
Summary of the Exodus 101
After the Exodus 103
The Fall of Israel and the Rise of Judah 105
The Yahweh Illusion 107
The Effect of Monotheism 111
Collective Memory 113
The Textual Evidence 115
The Bible and Archaeology 117
The Levites 121
Historicity of the Bible 124
Chapter 5 The Christians: Memories of Jesus
Documentary Sources 127
The Oral Tradition 132
Collective Memory 133
Collective Memory and Natural Selection 135
Mutant Memories 138
Memories of Masada 145
Memories of Lincoln 149
The Collective Memory of Jesus 152
The Resurrection of Jesus 155
Jesus as Son of God 161
Jesus as Messiah 163
Jesus as Miracle Worker 166
The Virgin Birth 170
The Reason Jesus Died 172
The Jesus Illusion 176
Mutant Memories of Jesus 178
What Motivated Jesus? 179
Chapter 6 The Christians: Paul
Questions about God 181
Paul the Man 183
Paul and Egypt 185
Influence of Plato 186
Influence of Gnosticism 190
Influence of Hermeticism 192
The Gnostic Paul 193
Paul's Trip to the Third Heaven 194
Why Three Heavens? 195
Faith and Sin 199
Jesus as Son of God 201
Paul's Motives 204
Paul's Expected Reward 207
A Threatened Man 210
Paul in the Afterlife 213
Chapter 7 The Christians: Trinity Completed
The Power of the Bishops 218
Valentinus 223
Emergence of Heresy 228
Defining Orthodoxy 233
A Quartet of Heretics 234
Arius 238
Council of Nicaea 240
Nicene Creed 242
Return to Arianism 246
Influence of Plotinus 247
Summary and Conclusions 251
Chapter 8 Power
Hobbes 258
Nietzsche 262
Nietzsche (cont.): Ressentiment and Religion 265
Foucault 269
Foucault (cont.): Religion 273
Whitehead 278
Final Comment 282
Chapter 9 Illusion
Two Theories of Illusion 283
Sources of Vulnerability 285
The Meaning of the Real 286
The Logic of Religion 290
The Appeal to Philosophy 294
Ritual 296
Festivals 298
Benefits and Harms of the Religious Illusion 301
Murder and Mayhem 303
More Murder and Mayhem 307
Is God Both Good and Evil? 312
Sin 314
Avoiding Illusion: The Call for Evidence 315
Epilogue
Religion and Happiness 319
The Future of Religious Belief 322
Notes 327
Index 343